VOTE: Should MPs be banned from having second jobs?
Is Ed Miliband right? Is it time we stopped MPs from having jobs outside parliament?
Both Jack Straw and Sir Malcom Rifkind are being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards after being accused of providing services to private companies for cash in a sting by Channel Dispatches and the Telegraph. Both MPs have been suspended by their respective parties.
In response to the story, Labour leader Ed Miliband has once again reiterated his opposition to MPs having second jobs. “We’ve got to settle this issue of second jobs once and for all so we remove any suspicion that MPs are working not for their constituents’ interests but someone else’s interests,” Miliband said.
91 Tory MPs have second jobs compared to 21 Labour MPs. Tory MPs with second jobs have this year declared £4.4m of earnings in the register of members’ interest. Meanwhile Labour MPs have declared around £1m in earnings.
So is Ed Miliband right? Is it time we stopped MPs from having jobs outside parliament? Cast your vote.
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James Bloodworth is the editor of Left Foot Forward. Follow him on Twiter
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